The Strand

The mark that Heaney’s ageing father made on a Dublin beach will never be obliterated by the incoming tide. Walking Sandymount Strand with the old man left a trail: The dotted line my father’s ashplant made. As long as Heaney lives nothing the all-powerful sea can do will succeed in effacing the memory: something else the tide won’t wash away. dotted line: literally the line of marks imprinted by the stick on soft sand; metaphorically the space left on a form or letter upon which a person leaves his signature; Strand: a Dublin beach called Sandymount Strand; ashplant: the walking-stick that the elderly Patrick Heaney used to get about; tide … wash away: messages or sandcastles left on the […]